Bread Tuesday

So it's been a new thing this summer that butterknife estates is hosting bread tuesdays again and over the course of a couple of weeks we have had great experiences making all sorts of breads the most popular have been, Irish soda bread, rice bread, and potato bread, but the list includes sour dough, onion, sweet potato, whole wheat wheat, white bread, half white and half whole wheat, and cheese bread sticks. 

if you have any suggestions of breads let me know and we'll see how it works next bread Tuesday.

Sweet potato and Irish soda bread

Onion

half whole wheat and white. 

New Car!

So it's been a while since i've last updated my life. but here it is...

We have a new car in the family it's a 2001 ford focus and is a nice bright red, but there is a problem... it doesn't have a name so here is the time for suggestions of a new car. my thoughts have been ray bradbury. but i would like to here your suggestions. ( a very similar looking car)

the other big news as far as i know is that now i'm in logan living at the BKE and i'm having such a blast up here and just getting along with everyone!

Tay-Hass

so it's been a little bit since my last post and here's just a couple of things that have happened since.

So a few weeks ago i was able to visit my dear Francisco Fambly in San Antonio, and I arrived in the middle of the dark on a Friday night, where Jan picked me and took me to her house which i had never seen before and which a give the highest regards, and so that night ended. which lead to the next morning where i heard the scampering feet running down the hall to go down and see what was for breakfast, then scurrying back up the stairs to play with toys while breakfast was being finished. so as I stumble out of bed still a little disoriented. I came out of the bed room and see the kids which screamed with delight to see Uncle Matt. So we got ready for the day by taking cocoa the Boxer Rottweiler mix out for a walk with all the kids after a delicious breakfast. As the day's went by i found out that this was the usual routine that the Francisco's had. so i was really impressed with them and what they do on a daily schedule.

After all the excitement of Uncle Matt and being new to the area, life went pretty normally and that Saturday we went on two big adventures, the first was the trip down to Guadalajara state park which was a lot of fun and full of rock throwing, picnics. and other grand adventures. than a short drive back to the house where we got ready for the trunk or treat party at the ward house, which was rather enjoyable and a lot of fun to meet a lot of new people, one of the best highlights in my opinion was the chance to talk to the elders of the ward and in a weird way get back int

o the grove of being a missionary again, which was really satisfying in a weird kind of way... anyways Saturday was a big success.

Which than leads us to Sunday which was a great day and just again relaxing nothing special other than a great time at church and being able to be apart of it was good. which leads to this picture. now like most people you wouldn't think that texas wouldn't be cold at the end of october and well your right, it wasn't cold. Jan and Ben both needed a fire in there house and so it was done.

Outside Temperature: 78 degrees.

so Sunday was really good and with three helpers the jobs around the house get done a lot quicker and that means there is more time to have fun... so that's just what we did, we went on a walk to the "exploring place" and carved pumpkins and so many other cool things. when all was said and done, Jan and I played the game Blokus in which we both had a good time and just catching up on old times.

Monday was quite a day indeed... it started off with getting the kids to their respective schools and then doing all the little odd jobs that needed to be done, but just couldn't be done due to time restraints, after that we got the kids together after the morning school and then went off to the zoo at San Antonio and saw all the animals but we needed to get back in a hurry before it got to dark, because it was HALOOWEEN!

Myra as a turtle Clark as a Bat Eva as a Princess

so as we hurried back to the house and started getting ready for the evenings adventure to arrive, the kids had such a great time out trick or treating and stayed out "really late"

Tuesday was another adventure which was quite fun and we were able to watch a kids movie and soak in the hot tub and do all sorts of random things that just needed to be done, so as the day started coming to a close as was shipped out to the airport where i needed to be to catch a flight back home and remember the good times that were had in Texas and start finding ways to visit again...

A Week Back

well this week hasn't been much of a change from last week, except for the fact that i'm no longer a missionary, well anyways the highlight of this past week....

well i got back on Thursday and wasn't released until Friday morning so in between arriving and being released i played two games of basketball with Pops. then started getting back in to the swing of everything with a wonderfully planned pumpkin carving COoompation which was really cool to start seeing everyone again. (pictures can be found on facebook.) so as the night of friday came to a close it was time for me to get ready for a sacrament talk, and reporting to the high council, which i was nervous for but i think it went pretty well. The subject that i tried to focus on was doing the small things in life, because when we do those things than we are more on track with the rest of our lives.

which leads us to the after party where i met up with the old buddies that i have going from left to right Richard Wilkins, Me, Eric Swindlehurst, and Richard Wilson. with the unfortunate leaving of Sister Beetle and Brother Thad.

so that was sunday in a nutshell, and it didn't quite feel real that i either i left or i was supposed to be back, but i think that i'm adjusting pretty well.

Monday it was just a normal day i think, just kind of bumming around the house finding little odd jobs to do and cleaning up a bit and getting reorginized. than going to my first FHE at the YSA ward that i'm supposed to be a part of and that was weird and different, but cool to see one of my old companions and seeing new people in the ward and another chance to catch up with old friends. one for example was Spencer Hatfield and going over each other's mission stories and then also seeing Kayla Hunter and catching up on good time with both of them.... so all in all a good time.

Tuesday i woke up in the morning and got out and did a shift for Mom at the Cannery and i shoved over a ton of pork cubes. yes that was my job shoving pork... pretty cool i think... and other good news i got a phone, so send me an email and i'll let you know what the number is.

Wednesday was just a good day where i just relaxed and started the Lord of the Ring Trilogy, which i think is a great movie to start back into the swing of things. and not seeing anything for two years it really opens up the movie again and i think i'm getting more out of it.

Thursday, was the day of cleaning up the house again and starting on a couple of projects, and going fishing which was a lot of fun, just having time to enjoy nature and getting to know the jethrobyn clan again, which ended up with a nap on the floor of their house.

Friday just finishing a couple of projects that are around the house and getting ready to go camping tonight with the young scouts. so it's going to be fun and interesting to see what happens.

Matt Gillespie- out

Twas the P-Eve before Home-Eve...

Hello everybody!

Guess what it's my last time writing as a missionary in the mission field and i'll update you on what's happen this last week so, we had kind of a crazy week where we had to pull together a baptism in about 10 days which isn't bad. so we got the rest of the lessons taught and got everything ready for this great baptism of this girl who's dating a member. so we have everything done... now you just don't want any baptism, so we took it upon ourselves to make it the nicest that a missionary could do, so the interview for baptism is on Wednesday and she passed with flying colors. so now it was on to the next phase... cleaning the font, now a couple of weeks ago i told you that the font was out of order for a bit. so we had some professionals come in and clean it up for us, but for some strange reason there was still a funny odor that was floating around. so we went to investigate, and we think that the smell was coming from the grout and Elder Bluth being a former janitor and working with chemicals all his career found that we best just by scrubbing the grout and then cleaning every little nook and cranny that might potentially keep the smell in there. so off we went to work and we worked and worked just trying to get that smell out and by the end of the whole thing we found that the smell had been eradicated. which i thought was pretty cool. so the next day on Saturday we went up to the church and started filling the font and it was just such a great opportunity and not only that but it was really spiritual.  what i thought was the coolest was the fact that every  time that we taught her she just seemed to be a little bit happier and a glow about her that i had never really noticed before and just how much learning about the gospel and applying it would make you happier. it just made me realize how much happier we all can be with the truth of the gospel in our lives.

Well on to our next story of the week, so this past couple of weeks we had a great time and had a chance to teach a little girl who's 8 years old and in a less active home so we had the chance to teach her and her family more about the Gospel and taught all the lessons and just had a really good time and helped her with everything that had a question about.  even though she really didn't have any questions at the time, and yet she just soaked in everything that we taught her, incredible how the human mind can just accept knowledge without a problem and make it work with all the other things inside the head at the same time. so anyways we taught her everything that she needed to know and what the bishop wanted us to teach her so we had a good old time with that, and then we set the date for baptism of October the 9th right after church and so we came early to church right after we finished with the baptism of the night before and started the font, which ended up just right. so I was able to have 2 baptisms right at the end of my mission, which has been a great ending to my experience here, in fact i wouldn't want to be in any other place right now i just feel like I'm home.... which all it means to me is feeling the spirit and having people around who really do love you and want you to become the best that you can become.

So that's the final ending to my story here in the Florida Tallahassee Mission as a 19-21 year old who was scared out of his mind, but has grown into a better person than he thought he could become and loves the gospel with all his heart might mind and strength. I love all ya'll

Love
Elder G.

a fort we built

baptism of sammy

baptism of cassie

Baptism!

Hellooooo Nurse!


So with that introduction I'll let this week start to unfold to ya'll so this Monday was a great one where we deep cleaned the apartment again and just made it all spic and span. after that well that night faded into the next day Tuesday

Which happened to be Zone conference and which would be my last one as a missionary here, so it was a very interesting and weird feeling that would be the last one that i was going to have in a long while. so that was a really good and uplifting experience to end on as far as zone conferences are concerned, and started bring up the fact that my mission was going to end soon. The lesson though that i learned this time was the fact that it really doesn't matter who's the missionary, it's the fact that I'm being open enough to let the spirit work through me to help bless those around me. That is the biggest thing that i got out of this last zone conference. That night we had another great lesson with the large group of members and we had the lesson of the plan of salvation which ended up having a lot of different questions which we needed to study to try and get the answer to their questions. But it was an awesome time to finish the day.

Wednesday was just another day just working hard and long trying to find, teach and baptize people and that day we were working all over and ended up working with a member and seeing a less active and trying to restart a fire in her life to come back to church where you can be happier. After that we went to another member's who fed us some pizza which we hadn't really gotten a lot of lately so we had a really good time there and taught that family about prayer and getting them to again to come to church, which is another part member family and we again had a really good discussion about the plan of salvation. So it's been interesting about what we've been studying and what we are trying to answer.

Thursday, that was a really slow day, we tried everything we could to find people contact investigators do anything and it just seemed like nothing was working. So we just kept working with what we had and kept moving forward and it'll pay off when it's the right time.  That night we had dinner with a member family whose son is going on a mission in about 8 weeks so it's going to be really cool. They might even call to see what's going on and see the sights in Utah.

Friday we finished getting everything ready for the baptism program that afternoon, and worked as well as we could we everything going on, some of the highlights were, starting to teach a family the gospel, which went really well, and we think that it's going to go somewhere. Then we went to the font and cleaned it out before the baptism that we were having the next day.

Saturday worked on inviting people to the baptism and then started the font and getting everything set for that which was really good. It was really spiritual as well, and it was a good boost to keep me going and see and feel the happiness that the gospel really does bring to families.

Sunday we were just enjoying life, having a really good time and just having a good time when the bishop comes up to us and starts talking to us and brings a family over, so we talk a little bit and find out that a little girl who's 8 wants to get baptized, well that's a great time for us to be there and come to find out that they want her to get baptized in two Sundays which i was stoked to find out and that would just make a great ending to my mission which God has been so gracious to let me be a part of. So just another little miracle of the day and mission which I'm looking forward to.

That the week in a snap shot. I'm excited to see what happens in the coming weeks.

Love Elder Gillespie

Poop!

Life is going really well and Elder Bluth and I are getting along really well and happy to be out here.

this week has been pretty weak, we've done a lot of tracting, a lot of trying to see people, and a lot of walking around to find new people to teach.  the best story i have would of been last weeks when we were able to find a lady who knows the church and getting open to the idea of coming, which she literally lives down the street from the church.  we were able to have a really spiritual lesson with her, and found out that she's been told about the book of mormon from a sister and brother in-law.  it was really a great lesson and i think we'll get her pretty close before i leave to coming to church and understanding more and more about the church.

So! story of the week, we have our investigator getting ready for baptism and everything is going well we are making the program and getting all the final preparations finished for this great event that we are going to have on saturday, and as we get everything figured out we find out that the facilities of the church aren't working the way they are suppose to and with that the baptism needed to be postponed until the plumbing could be figured out and changed.  which we would find out that it wouldn't be until saturday evening when everything was figured out that all pipes were fixed. so with all that we got everything moved to where it was suppose to and then kept working with what we have.

besides that we had an amazing lesson with a investigator who actually wanted us to come over and teach her and one of the member families who are befriending her. in the process of teaching we had her in the lesson but also the grandfather of the family who also isn't a member and participated in the lesson. it was a really good lesson and everything went really well, although it's really intimidating to teach like 6 members who are older than you and have been in pretty distinguished callings, and teaching the lesson in such a way where all can benifit. i don't know about you but it was a little scary in my opinion. and we also feel like she'll be able to come really quickly into the church.

besides that life here in the little town of pearson isn't to bad, i've got everything i want and everything i need.

Love to all

Elder Gillespie

Beetle, sounds like a lot of fun, and i've got the request of going to the temple on friday morning... i think that would be a lot of fun.

Toni, i loved the notes from anna and your probably right with her understanding and it's going to be a lot of fun when i do come over, as far a missionaries. you'll have to be the one to decided what kind you want in your house. to make it eaiser just wait a little while and get settled in, but if they show up to your door, get to know them by asking questions, they like that.

Jan WHAT! when did this little suprise come up, and am i the last to know?  anyways i'm excited to see ya'll soon enough. tell ben he's doing awesome.

Robyn those pictures looked awesome and I am impressed. it's so weird to think that cousin brian is already married. keep up the good work, it's paying off.

Dad you sound like a very busy man, you should relax a bit so when i do come home i'll have a project or two to do while i'm just around.

Mom your letter was awesome and i hope that you'll see the things that you already knew were inside, but just needed sometime to be refined.

Love Ya'll and i think i'm turning southern.

Matthew Gillespie